It is happening all over the place, and it’s about time.
Wounds that have been festering, sometimes for years, of women who have been victimized by sexual abuse and misconduct, are coming to the surface of our society. What was once “considered” normal is now being challenged, and our country is slowly reeling, like a large ocean liner keeling over to one side, taking on the water that floods our current news feeds.
Why has it taken SO long for us to hear about these things in an open forum?
Because our society teaches women to “shut up about sexual abuse”. For a woman to talk about sexual abuse, she has to endure countless further abuses, of people calling her a liar and an opportunist, of a society looking down on her for speaking up, and of a society that considers victims of sexual abuse nothing more than thin-skinned people who are looking for 15 minutes of fame.
How in the world does something like sexual abuse even exist in 21st century America? If you ask that question, then you also NEED to ask how racism also exists in 21st century America. The answer to both - the entitled American male.
American men live in a society where they are grouped together as a “source of America’s stability”. American men feel the urge to show that they are in control, and “they make America run”. Ask many American guys, and they’ll tell you that America would not be what it is, without a man at the wheel. The American male has a sense of entitlement, no doubt taught to him by his father, and his father’s father. A mentality that proclaims that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness could never happen unless men where in charge. Now consider that mentality on a society-wide scale. At that level, it’s no wonder why men feel that they have the ability to do whatever they want with a woman. It’s a mentality that’s downright slave-like, when you think about it.
Taking racism into account, extend the American male entitlement into race. The “white” American male feels that he must be better than any “other” American male, because white American males had slaves. “Just look back at history” they would tell you. Our dealings with racism in this country have and share the same underpinnings at sexism - the common denominator being American males who feel they are at the top of the food chain. Call it male ego, or whatever - it’s men being “men”, as degrading and misogynist as that sounds.
And, why the hell do we even call it “sexual misconduct”? It’s sexual abuse, not misconduct - the same way that rape isn’t called “physical sex-based misconduct”. Misconduct is when your kid has a tantrum at the grocery store. Abuse is what it is. Let’s call a spade a spade.
There is little left to the question of why sexual abuse exists unchecked, when we consider that sexual inequality has been commonplace in our society, since we became a society. Never have women really been given the chance to be equals. The “status quo” has always been that women were subordinate to men, so I guess that means that women are fair game for rape, abuse and unequal justice then? What the hell kind of rhetoric is that? It’s either out of sheer stupidity, or out of blatant stubbornness, that American men hold onto the belief that women are somehow “good to go for whatever you want to do with them”. Really?
I have dealt with racism, since I’m an Asian American, born here many years ago. I “get” why racism exists in America. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. But what I don’t get, is women in America being abused by men. That simply makes no sense to me at all. Inequality, in any form, damages a society, and leaves a lasting scar on its people. For a society to allow the abuses of inequality, including sexual abuses, goes far beyond plausible deniability. It speaks to the outright entitled attitude of men in that society - an attitude that holds no respect for anyone but themselves.
For all of the out crying that’s happening now, I fear that all of this effort will get drowned out, by the sounds of “good old boys” hearkening their cry of “get over it”, and forcing the rest of society to quietly sit and watch, as the abuses go unchallenged. What is most sad today, is that “shit rolls downhill”...
... and in our case, we have a president who is the epitome of today’s abuses, sexual or otherwise...